Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

With the publication of the summer economic statement today, the debate on what will happen in the budget is going to crank up. I want the Taoiseach to think about the fact that the cost of disability report suggests that people with disabilities have additional costs of €7,000 to €9,000 per year, but the disability allowance is €220 per week. In other words, the vast majority of people with disabilities in this country not only do not get the sort of support they need to deal with the additional costs of disability, but are left in poverty for life. To make matters worse, it is means tested and as a consequence some people are denied even that allowance, which to my mind flies directly in the face of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Can we expect in the budget that the Government will raise disability allowance, at least to the level that would take people on the disability allowance out of poverty and acknowledge the additional costs that people with disability have?

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